It was hard to find anyone who thought the CL&P request for a rate increase was justified except for the state Department of Public Utility Control.

And the DPUC is the state agency that actually will decide whether the rate increase is approved.

"It is unlikely the department can deny or delay the cost recovery sought in this filing," the DPUC said in a statement.

CL&P's request involves a 16.7 percent rate increase. But because current credits on electric bills are due to expire early next year, Rell says the requested rate increase would mean a 30 percent hike by April 2005 or an increase of $18.30 a month for the average residential customer.

That will be a heavy burden, not only for residential users but businesses as well. That kind of cost increase will have a severe impact on Connecticut's fragile economic recovery.

So why would the DPUC allow it? Because only 1 percent of the 16.7 percent is a rate increase. The rest of the request reflects dramatic increases in the cost of fuel, along with federally mandated charges associated with the transmission bottleneck in southwest Connecticut.

So Blumenthal has come up with another plan of attack reducing the "competitive transition assessment" adopted by the
General Assembly
in 2000 when Connecticut deregulated its electric industry.

These so-called "stranded costs" were to allow Northeast Utilities, CL&P's parent, to recover costs created by the deregulation process which included the sale of generating facilities, including Candlewood Lake.

Utility regulation is a complex subject. With a week for reflection, it's clear utility rates are going to skyrocket in Connecticut early next year, no matter how many people denounce a rate increase.

To some, that's not a bad idea. It would encourage the competition that was initially promised by deregulation but hasn't appeared.

To everyone else, of course, a 30 percent increase in utility rates within the next six months is unthinkable.

Perhaps the payments due for stranded costs are a means to control the increase. But, for the moment, there doesn't appear to be any easy solution.

That means the legislature, the governor and the attorney general need to work together to find a solution. Just condemning the rate increase request isn't a solution.